Advertisement

Proposals to jail reckless bankers

Senior bankers should be personally responsible for malpractice, with a new criminal offence of reckless misconduct in the management of a bank that carries a custodial sentence, the Banking Commission has concluded in its final report.

PM backs plans for reckless bankers to face threat of jail

If you were wondering how many of the ideas put forward by the Banking Commission the Government would take on, the Prime Minister has just made it pretty plain that the plan to create a new offence that could see senior bankers end up in jail will become law.

At Prime Minister's Questions, David Cameron has just suggested that the Government will back the measure, although any new law would almost definitely not apply retrospectively.

So despite the fact the plan has clearly been designed with the former behaviour of bankers like Fred Goodwin in mind, it will not apply to them or any of the other top bosses at the time of the financial crisis.

Almost all of them have departed from their posts already, their reputations severely damaged. But despite some appetite from politicians and some members of the public, it is unlikely any of them will end up behind bars.